The skies were wild and crazy today so it wasn't a day I would have imagined doing my first solo cross-country trip. In fact, when I got to the airport, the ceilings were quite low and we had to watch and wait to see if the flight would be a go.
 |
| Waiting out some pretty ugly weather |
I have to admit, I had mixed feelings about whether I wanted it to clear up, although I wasn't terribly nervous. But there I was, already at the airport, and I knew I had to do the flight if I ever wanted to be a pilot. Eventually, the lower cloud layer did start to clear off and it seemed more likely that I could go.
 |
| Looks like it's clearing up |
The plan today was for me to fly the route in the opposite direction to when my instructor and I did it way back in February. So, the decision was made that I would go and I got in the plane to head for Camrose. The flight to Camrose is about 20 minutes long, once you're up. The weather looked wild all around me but, except for some turbulence, it was really no issue. Navigating was no problem because there's a big lake at the halfway point, which is easy to see right after departure and then once you're at that lake, you can see Camrose, a small city, in the distance. The airport at Camrose was quiet and my landing was a beauty. I texted my instructor to tell him that I had landed. He told me he was proud of me! I got a bit choked up at that!
I taxied back down to the hold short line of the active runway and recorded my times. Then I looked up at the sky in the direction of Vegreville, my next destination:
 |
| On the ground in Camrose, looking northeast. I'm going that way! |
I didn't think that looked so good! I texted my instructor again and sent him this picture. He told me to take off and see what it looked like and come back to Cooking Lake if I had to. So I took off and set my heading but as it turned out, this ugly mass of clouds was just to the west of my track. It wasn't too bad along my direct path.
 |
| Between Camrose and Vegreville, 2000' above ground |
My biggest challenge on that leg was spotting a massive flock of migratory birds about 3 miles ahead of me and wondering whether I'd have to deviate around them. Thankfully, they were out of my way in time! When I got to Vegreville, I couldn't find the airport, although Vegreville is a small town and I knew the airport was on the northeast side. I circled and finally saw it. I had a bit of a crosswind there so the landing was slightly off but safe and OK. Again I recorded my numbers, checked in with my instructor, and taxied back down for the take-off.
Just as I pushed in the power for the take-off, I had a fleeting thought that I had forgotten my line-up checks, a quick review of all the systems to be sure they were all good. Unfortunately, that meant I took off with 20 degrees of flaps (which I had forgotten to retract after landing), which makes it pretty tricky to climb out and hold the airspeed since the flaps create drag. I got the flaps up and the plane started to climb better! Relief! Slightly freaky moment.
I had some blue sky on the last leg so it was a nice flight, although I had to stay a little lower to avoid clouds and rain. It seemed like no time at all and I was landing back at Cooking Lake, with 105 nautical miles (195 km) covered and 2 more hours of solo flight time done!
 |
| Heading home to Cooking Lake from Vegreville |
No comments:
Post a Comment